Anatoli’s Quiet Night In

Anatoli admired the precision of the tightly rolled joint and sat back, inhaling long and deep, before filling the small room with a cloud of hemp smoke. The apartment, sticky with the heat of an August night that caused his naked moist back to stick to the faux black leather of the well-worn sofa, reeked of baby piss and puke. He resented that. Not just the stink but the baby too. He had been foolish to let Iulia keep the thing. Fuck, it wasn’t as if he loved her. She was just another of his sluts; but one he allowed to cook and clean for him. Yeah, she had been a good fuck as well. Once.

Some of the kids out on the street were now saying he was going soft letting her move in and keeping the kid. He should have kicked her down the stairs or something when she refused to go to the abortion clinic,that would have sorted it. It was bad enough she couldn’t make money for a few months but the fucking thing hardly ever stopped crying, it was the most fucking vociferous baby he had ever known. And when it did stop balling it was either shitting or sucking on her tit. Fuck, to think he used to enjoy that once! Now he needed a bottle of vodka and the lights off just to get it up her.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the silence. Iulia was back out working the back streets of Bucharest. He told her if there was an extra mouth to feed she better get back out and earn for it. He wasn’t going to pay for the thing, his kid or not.

Suddenly the fucking thing stirred and started bawling in its cot. He tried to ignore it for a while but the screams eventually pierced the dope-hazed fug of his brain. He stood up and prowled around the room, his hands covering his ears as he tried to block out the fucking thing. Realising it wasn’t going to stop, he pulled a revolver out of the waistband of his tracksuit bottoms and cocked the revolver. A fucking bullet through its head would silence it. But then a thought struck him and he laughed. He couldn’t believe he’d never thought of it before. He slipped the gun back inside his waistband, scooped the thing up and headed out the flat.

An hour later Anatoli was back on the sofa, minus the kid and $250 dollars richer. It would have taken Iulia a whole night and 10 fucks up some piss stinking alley to earn that kind of cash. And he had peace at last. But then Iulia spoilt that by coming in.

“Where’s the baby?” she asked.

He smirked and rolled his doped-up eyeballs. “I sold it. Some guy I know knows someone who knows someone who runs an illegal adoption racket. She’ll be halfway to London by now.”

When Iulia started screaming, he offered. “Fuck, she’ll get a better life than a junky fucking whore like you could offer her. You should be grateful, bitch.”

He slapped her hard across the face when she started punching and kicking blindly at him. Lying on the cum stained carpet she began sobbing hysterically.

Angrily Anatoli pulled the gun back out of his pants and pistol-whipped her into silence. As she lay face down in the spreading pool of blood he gave a kick in the stomach. Fuck, was it too much to ask for a bit of peace once in a while?